Balancing Home and Work Life for Joe

Friday, July 15, 2011

In May 2011, Peter Linkow, Jan Civian, and Kathleen M. Lingle, released an international study of men and work life under the auspices of WorldatWork’s Alliance for Work-Life Progress. Funding for the study was provided by GlaxoSmithKline, Workplace Options, Bright Horizons Family Solutions, Ceridian, Dell, IBM, and WorldatWork. The crux of the study was an attempt to comprehend the obstacles which prevent many men and many organizations from taking advantage of the numerous and varied tools available to balance an employee’s work and life challenges. The study was conducted in November and December 2010 by surveying some 2,312 employees employed in large (500+, ees) organizations in: Brazil, China, India, Germany, the UK and the US. The sample included men and women and was balanced across age.

The authors reported four central findings:

1. Men and women identify equally with their work and family lives.

2. Men and women are both concerned about financial issues and the lack of time.

3. Men and women jointly perceived that they have been “punished” for utilizing work/life benefits.

4. Many business leaders continue to take an “antiquated” view of work/life benefits.

Let’s forgo the warm and fuzzy issues of parental bonding and caring for ill and aging parents; and look at balancing work and life issues from the purely economic standpoint of creating value. In order for organizations to create value for their employees, shareholders, and for society, they require resources. A large portion of those resources for most organizations come in the form of humans. Most organizations demand the best and the brightest of those resources and once organizations have obtained those best and brightest resources; organizations generally desire to retain and motivate them. Failing to attract, retain, and motivate those resources can lead to a significant downward trend in the value organizations create.

Even in today’s rattled economies, the best and the brightest continue to have options. And we are not always talking about Ph.D’s in genetic re-engineering. Skilled machine tool operators and skilled construction trades are in short supply, and these shortages are not unique to the US. So with the competition matching each other’s compensation and benefits; work-life issues could become a competitive advantage or disadvantage. While not every employee is capable of telecommuting or conducive to flex-time arrangements; the best and the brightest will gravitate to those organizations which afford them options.

So what’s the solution? There is no one single answer for every organization. What works for a machine shop may not work for a software developer. What works for a competitor down the street may not work for your organization. What works for one system engineer may not for all system engineers. It is going to take a balancing act between the needs of the organization to create value and the desires of the employee have to balance their personal life with work.